GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War Day 668

No Starvation Seen

No Starvation In Gaza

Hamas says they won’t negotiate until the starving ends in Gaza, but the man US President Trump sent to assess the conditions in Gaza says there is no starvation happening as we’re told in a report from The Jerusalem Post:

US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff stated that the US was planning to end the war and called for an all-or-nothing approach to end the Israel-Hamas War in a meeting with hostage families on Saturday.

The US wants the war to end and get the hostages back:

According to a press release, Witkoff said that the US had a plan to "end the war and bring everyone home," and that this was US President Donald Trump's top priority.

In the meeting Gazans and Israelis said they want the hostages released:

The majority of the Israeli public wants the kidnapped people home, and the majority of the Gazan public wants the kidnapped people back, because they want the Strip to be restored, Witkoff told the families of the hostages in a three-hour meeting.

Witkoff assured them that Trump wants the same thing:

“Our first priority is to bring all the hostages home. President Trump believes everyone should come out, and those who are alive must be kept alive. This is a sacred mission to him.”

He knows full well that Hamas says that they won’t negotiate until the starving ends, but he says they isn’t starving going on which should put pressure on Hamas:

Witkoff told the families that he came to personally assess the situation in Gaza and to ensure that humanitarian aid is being provided. He said that while there is hardship and food shortages, there is no starvation in Gaza. He said, according to Israeli media, that once the claim of starvation is refuted, negotiations can continue to end the war and return all the hostages. 

Moving The Goal Posts

Hamas is now saying that they won’t surrender unless there is Palestinian state obviously riding on the coattails of France, Canada and others nations who are warning Israel that they will back Hamas on that demand:

Hamas responded to Witkoff on Saturday, saying that it would not lay down arms unless an independent Palestinian state is established. In a statement, the Palestinian terror group said its "armed resistance ... cannot be relinquished except through the full restoration of our national rights, foremost among them the establishment of an independent, fully sovereign Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital."

And now you can see why hostage families are critical of these nations for doing that. They fully realize that by doing it Hamas is emboldened to make ludicrous demands, demands they know Israelis will never allow. It’s all a psychological ploy to get the international community to support them. Unfortunately Hostage forums are falling for the propaganda:

Hostage families erected a symbolic barbed wire fence compound to stand inside in protest for a hostage-ceasefire deal on Saturday morning, following the publication of two videos of hostages held in Gaza by terrorist organizations on Thursday and Friday. Hamas’s propaganda videos over the past two days illustrate that the Israelis in captivity are living through a Holocaust, hostage demonstration leader and mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, Einav Zangauker, said on X/Twitter Saturday.

Einav was passionate about how heart wrenching the videos are:

“My Matan is living through a Holocaust,” she lamented. “The videos released over the past two days of the hostages are breaking us.”

"Never again is now!" she declared. The Hostages and Missing Families Forum urged the Israeli and US governments to look their loved ones in the eyes, and called for a comprehensive deal to release the hostages and end the war immediately.

She fears that they will not survive much longer in those conditions:

"The danger to their lives is tangible and immediate. The risk of losing those deceased is growing. Stop this nightmare and bring them out of the tunnels home!"

Another hostage video was recently released by the family and it was another stark example of how poorly these people are being treated by Hamas:

Palestinian Islamic Jihad published a video of Rom Braslavski on Thursday, and Hamas published a video of Evyatar David on Friday. In the propaganda videos, the two appeared to be emaciated. The Braslavski family said they were “deeply shaken” by the footage.

As I reported yesterday and wasn’t in this report Yaelah, the sister of David said this:

“After a night of crying over my brother, who has become a walking skeleton in Gaza’s cruel dungeon, I understood that the whole world needs to see this”, Yaelah added, saying that “Hamas is not ISIS – it’s much worse than them”. She went on to explain that “Hamas is starving the hostages and Gaza residents, preventing them from receiving humanitarian aid that Israel and the world are providing – all for media purposes and propaganda”.

Hamas says the starving needs to end first and then that is rebuffed by Witkoff after going into Gaza. Now they are preying on the emotions of hostage families and cruelly using these men as publicity props so they can end the war with them still in charge of Gaza. And they know it. But we know they fully intend to attack Israel over and over again knowing that their actions on October 7th of 2023 worked. As hard as it is, pray that Netanyahu and Trump see through the smoke screens and stay the course. Pray that the special forces of both countries will mount a rescue mission for the hostages now. And pray that God will protect them as they do. Then Hamas will have no more leverage. And that’s a very good thing.